I'm not up on much of it either and have been learning more over the past few days. It really came on the rise when Putin came into power. Here's a few links...
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9910/01/russia.chechnya.02/ Russian troops inside Chechnya
Russia's Defense Ministry denies reports that Russian ground troops took positions inside Chechnya
October 1, 1999
Web posted at: 9:43 p.m. EDT (0143 GMT)
In this story:
Air strikes continue
Chechens seek aid from Georgia's Shevardnadze
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From staff and wire reports
MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russian officials said Friday that Russian troops had entered the Caucasus region of Chechnya and would occupy a section along the border to protect neighboring Dagestan from incursions by Islamic guerrillas.
"A security zone is being created sufficient to guarantee security," said Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, without elaborating.
The Chechen government said that 7,000 Russian combat troops, supported by hundreds of armored vehicles, had moved inside northern Chechnya. Russia initially denied the reports that its troops have massed inside Chechnya.
Although Moscow denies a full-scale invasion of Chechnya, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted Thursday that Russia still controlled Chechnya and could station troops there at any time.
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Also:
http://www.bigeye.com/021502.htm<snip>
In 1999, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer and point man for Russia's military industrial complex, emerged form the shadows to become prime minister under ailing President Boris Yeltsin. Putin claimed the bombings were the work of Chechen `Islamic terrorists financed by Osama bin Laden,' though he offered no proof.
Putin promised to `liquidate all terrorists.' He proclaimed Russia was facing a war between `good' and `evil.' `It's our boys,' said Putin, fanning war fever and hysteria, `against terrorists' belonging to an `international Islamic conspiracy.' Putin's alleged evidence of Chechen guilt was never forthcoming. Chechen leaders denied any responsibility for the bombings. Why they would seek war with Russia after gaining independence was never explained. Thousands of `swarthy-looking'(meaning Muslim) men from the Caucasus and Central Asia were arrested, brutally interrogated, and held without charges.
After a mysterious incursion into Dagestan by a small number of Chechen and Dagestani mujihadin, Putin ordered the Russian Army to invade independent Chechnya, calling it a `nest of Islamic terrorists.' Russian forces massively bombed and shelled the capital, Grozny, already shattered by the 1994-1996 war in which an estimated 100,000 Chechen civilians were killed by Russian forces. Grozny, in the words of a Russian journalist, was turned into `the Hiroshima of the Caucasus.'
Today, Russian forces are continuing their repression of the ferociously resisting Chechens. Russia's intensive bombing and shelling have killed 57,000 more civilians and made 200,000 refugees, say Chechen officials. Human rights organizations accuse Russian forces in Chechnya of ubiquitous brutality: mass murders and reprisals, arson, looting, torture, running concentration camps. Moscow rejects all such criticism, saying that rough methods are justified against `terrorists.'
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More at:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Chechnya+Putin+exiled&spell=1